The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
A typical planet carrier assembly used in planetary gear sets includes a spider carrier welded to a carrier flange or shell. A plurality of pinion pins and pinion washers are supported for rotation within the spider carrier. The pinion pins in turn support for rotation a plurality of planet gears. In stacked planetary gear sets, two spider carriers are typically welded to the carrier flange, each spider carrier supporting a set of planet gears. The spider carriers are typically formed by machining.
While previous methods for assembling a planet carrier are useful for their intended purpose, there is room in the art for improved methods of assembling planet carriers in stacked planetary gear sets that reduce construction and machining costs, decrease package size, and reduce the weight of a transmission.